She smiled but didn’t answer. The truth was that she didn’t know what she was going to do but she was too distracted by Socard to think about it right now. That night, in her new quarters, Lily dreamed of Lionel again. When she woke she was certain that she could smell his scent on the air.
The rest of the week went by in much the same way. Lily got used to dressing in the uniform. She spent a lot of time on each of the display rooms, cleaning the dust off. Toward the end of the week she found that she was running out of displays. She really needed to clean the office but Socard never seemed to leave it.
Eventually she found that she didn’t have anything else to do. She went up to the highly polished double doors and knocked quietly, ready to sneak away if anything bad happened. Instead, she heard Lionel’s deep voice say, “Enter.”
She opened the door and peeked inside. “Uh, it’s Lily, mister Socard.”
He looked up and nodded. “What can I do for you, miss Peck?”
“Well, the office needs a cleaning, and I thought that I would ask when would be a good time for…”
He nodded again. “Now is fine.”
She entered with her little bucket of cleaning supplies and looked around. She pulled the dusting cloth from her belt and started working on the books. From time to time she would glance at him, but he never seemed to notice. The sight of him as almost as affecting as his voice, and she felt herself start to slip into a daydream that involved kissing his strong mouth. She kept dusting and polishing, lost in her daydream. She had no idea that he had moved until she turned and found him standing right behind her.
Lily gasped and jumped, dropping her bottle of dusting spray. She pressed herself back against the shelves and stared at him, her fist knotted at her throat. Socard simply stared at her with those piercing eyes for what felt like forever. He smiled. “Nothing to be scared of, Lily.”
He bent down and picked up the can, handing it back to her. “Sor…sorry,” she whispered. Socard reached out toward her suddenly, stroking her cheek. She gasped again, delicious tension filling her and sparking a damp heat between her legs.
“Nothing to be sorry about. Tell me, Lily. Are you curious as to why you were recruited to my service?” He put a slight emphasis on the last word. She swallowed.
“No, why?” she said, hating the way her voice trembled. He did that to her with his alpha-male confidence and the rich scent that overcame the smell of the dusting spray. “I’m not very special, or…”
He touched her lips and she stopped talking, overcome with mingled apprehension and arousal. Socard said, “You’re quite special in this day and age, Lily. Unless I’m quite wrong, you’ve never been with a man, have you.”
It was a statement rather than a question and it made her cheeks turn bright red. “Mister Socard, that’s not…I…” Her confusion was all the confirmation that he needed.
A small, satisfied grin twisted his lips, and for an instant she hated him. “Yes,” he said. “Come with me, Lily.”
He walked out the double door, his stride powerful and confident. He obviously had no doubts that she would be right behind him. She crept behind him, a mouse in the wake of a lion. They passed the music room, and then the tapestry room and the sculpture room. He flung each door open, silently contemplating the multitude of priceless objects inside. Lily had already seen them and cleaned them, so there was nothing to distract her from the way that his shoulders flexed and what his tailored pants did to his behind when he walked. He seemed to grow taller with each roomful of treasures and she felt the delicious tension rising inside her again. She did her best to keep him from seeing it. When he glanced at her and smiled she saw that he was fully aware of her reaction. Judging by the bulge at the front of his pants, it did more than simply amuse him, and she felt the tension jump higher at the sight.
Finally they reached the end of the hall, and he stopped at a small door. “I imagine Preston didn’t show you this room.”
“Um, no, mister Socard. I didn’t know that it was part of my duties.”
He reached under his shirt and pulled out a small key on the end of a chain around his neck. “And so it isn’t.” He unlocked the small door with a flourish and gestured for her to enter. She was more aware of the heat that he radiated than the contents of the room until then she looked around. Her eyes widened.
The room wasn’t nearly as large as the other display rooms. Each of the walls was covered with dozens of small glass display boxes and inside each box was a single gem that sat on a stand made out of gold. The room glittered when Socard turned on the light. Lily gaped for a moment before her gaze was drawn to the display stands in the middle of the room. Three things sat on the three stands: a crown encrusted with gems, a sapphire the size of a baseball, and what appeared to be an egg about the size of an ostrich’s. Socard walked into the room behind her and spread his arms. “This is the heart of my collection. Of my hoard.”
She looked around at the incredible wealth displayed and turned to look at him again. She gasped when she saw him. His eyes glittered with the gems, appearing to glow red, and he cast a strange shadow up the wall behind him. If she looked at it directly it appeared to have wings and horns. She shook her head and said, “Why the egg, mister Socard?”
“Ah,” he said, covering the distance to the display stand in two steps. Had he always been so tall? Had the fingers that caressed the egg always had nails so long and pointed?
“Truly, this is the most valuable thing in the room, my dear. Who can put a price on such a thing?” Socard opened the display case and picked up the egg. He held it to his mouth and breathed on it, and the egg glowed a quiet red. “Someday,” he said, “This will be the next generation.”
He put the egg down and turned to look at her again. His eyes were still green and just as penetrating, but they had changed shape. They had vertical slits for pupils, like a cat. He smiled, his teeth slightly pointed. “Only here, surrounded by my wealth, only here can I be who I truly am. Here…and with certain very special people. People like you, Lily.”
He approached her and she shrank back, but he merely walked by her and stood out in the hall, holding the door for her. His clothes rustled as he passed, sounding like scales rubbing against themselves. When she exited he re-locked the door and turned back to his study. She followed, feeling hypnotized.
Back in his office, Lily picked up the cloth that she’d dropped earlier, wringing it nervously as she stood by his desk. He closed the doors behind them.
“How am I special, mister Socard?”
He grinned at her. “You already know. You possess something that is valued by my people.” His grin revealed sharp teeth again, and his eyes were still vertically slit.
Lily was torn between fear and desire, petrified by balanced urges. The tension built inside of her, manifesting in stiffened nipples and growing wetness. “What…mister Socard, what are you?”
He took slow steps toward her, his voice as hypnotic as the sway of his powerful body. “There are many names. Wyrm. Wise one. Serpent. Even my name, Socard, is simply Dracos in reverse.”
“That’s crazy,” she said, knowing that it was true. His shadow flickered again, appearing as if great wings stirred behind him. Lily was captivated by his eyes, his scent. She wanted him to touch her, knowing that it might lead her to her doom.
He was just a foot away, his presence holding her. His eyes filled her vision. “Unusual, certainly. Do you know who we prefer? Who we ask for?”
Her mind tried to race but it only darted about in a panic. Lily touched on something that he had said earlier and she whispered, “Virgins.”